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The horrific New Year’s morning terrorist attack in New Orleans, Louisiana could be linked to a broader plot – one involving multiple former members of the United States military.
As previously reported, 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a Ford F-150 Lightning into a crowd of revelers on New Orleans’ historic Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning (January 1, 2025). At least fifteen people were killed and dozens more injured in the ensuing carnage.
After plowing through the street, Jabbar emerged from the vehicle armed with a rifle and opened fire on responding officers of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) – three of whom returned fire. Two of these responding officers were wounded during the ensuing exchange of gunfire and were hospitalized.
They are currently still in stable condition.
Jabbar had an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) flag hanging from a pole affixed to the Ford’s trailer hitch, and reports indicate the former soldier – who deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 – allegedly posted a video to his social media claiming to have been inspired by the radical Islamic terrorist organization.

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At a press conference held ten hours after the attack, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed it was investigating “a range of suspects” in connection with the incident and that multiple “weapons and potential improvised explosive devices (IEDs)” were recovered from Jabbar’s vehicle. The FBI further confirmed other “potential IEDs” were discovered at other locations in the French Quarter.
Hours after Jabbar’s attack, police say another Army veteran – 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado – detonated an improvised explosive device from within a rented Tesla Cybertruck outside of the Trump International hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. That blast – powered by gasoline canisters, camp fuel cans and firework mortars – injured seven people.
Livelsberger – who spent nearly two decades as an intelligence and operations specialist – was killed in the attack.
Local authorities say Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Colorado and drove it into Las Vegas at around 7:30 a.m. MST. The vehicle proceeded to travel “up and down Las Vegas Boulevard for about an hour” prior to pulling “into the valet area of the Trump Hotel.”
The explosion occurred at approximately 8:40 a.m. MST.
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LVMPD Provides Update on Cyber Truck Explosion Investigation
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) January 2, 2025
This afternoon, Sheriff Kevin McMahill addressed the media regarding the cyber truck explosion in front of the Trump Hotel. Here’s what we know so far:
?? Timeline:
The truck arrived in Las Vegas around 7:30 AM and… https://t.co/FVOyhyXpIP pic.twitter.com/8kuVcP39e6
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Sheriff Kevin McMahill credited Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk with assisting the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) in its investigation.
“I have to thank Elon Musk specifically,” McMahill said. He gave us quite a bit of additional information in regards to how the vehicle was locked after it exploded, due to … the nature of the force from the explosion.”
The Cybertruck itself is also being credited with helping reduce the destructive impact of the blast.
“Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle,” Musk wrote on X.
Musk also ripped into numerous mainstream media outlets which erroneously reported that the Cybertruck caught fire and exploded.
While forensics from both crime scenes continued to be examined, federal investigators are reportedly chasing down leads which could tie the two attacks together. Early Thursday morning (January 2, 2025), chief investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski KMGH-TV 7 (ABC) – reported that Jabbar and Livelsberger “served at the same military base” and that “authorities were investigating the link as a possible connection” between the two attacks.
The station did not identify the base in question, only that investigators were looking into the rumored connection.
This is a developing story… please check back for updates.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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4 comments
Looking less and less like there was any connection (beyond both being nutz).
While they both “served at the same military base”, the base was Fort Liberty (nee Bragg) and there are 60,000 Soldiers assigned there. The New Orleans Terrorist in Question (NOTIQ) was an admin/IT pogue and the Vegas Terrorist in Question (VTIQ) was supposedly a senior non-commissioned officer in the Special Forces on leave. NOTIQ served on active duty from ’07-’15 and the Army Reserves from ’15-’20, he had no known affiliation with the Army after ’20. Sf is insular and there is little chance the two had any connection.
The NOTIQ is starting to look like a self-radicalized loon who was mad at the world because of the mess he’d made of his life (two failed marriages, failed career as a realtor).
The VTIQ is the really odd one here – he looks like a successful senior NCO, married to a Lib Loon. He was stationed in Germany as a “Remote and Autonomous Systems Manager”, but she apparently had remained in Colorado. He had returned home for leave but the wife hadn’t seen him for several days. I have no idea what a RASM is, it’s not the proper title of any Army job I know of, but it appears to be some kind of “spy guy” job appropriate for his background as a signal Soldier/SF operator.
Wait, Trump claimed he defeated ISIS. I know it’s hard to remember it because he makes bullshit claims multiple times a day.
Yeah, well Trump also claimed the New Orleans guy recently came over the border, so there is that. Trump has all the credibility of a Fox News reporter or someone from this website.
The “field force” that ISL had was in fact defeated. The sick, twisted, ideology that ISL held is alive and well on the internet and in the “Levant” and supported intentionally and unintentionally by the “House of Saud”and many others.